The ongoing Political Musings of a former (now Stray) Yellar Dawg Dem.
***Warning***
This is a Feminist Blog, in the tradition of Susan B. Anthony.

"Just Tell Them...

I have worked 40 years to make the Women's Suffrage platform broad enough for Atheists and Agnostics to stand upon, and now if need be I will fight the next 40 to keep it Catholic enough to permit the straightest Orthodox religionist to speak or pray and count her beads upon."

Susan B. Anthony

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Reaching Out To Former O-bots: Are You Ready?

The PUMA post of the day comes from Widdershins, where Taggles has deftly posted a call to PUMAs to re-engage Obama voters. Presumably because they are more closely related to us ideologically than are the Republicans we may be cavorting with.

My response was thus:

Quite frankly, I was shut down by “friends” and family members who would not even hear that Obama was a fraud… and that Hillary was a better choice.

When I moved to supporting MacPalin, I was harrassed to the point where I often chose to lie about who I was voting for. (I told them Nader, which they also ridiculed.)

At this point I will not discuss politics with the Leftie Dems I used to hang with. Even the most educated and rational of them went gaga over Obama… and I just can’t forgive them. So, I have a policy. No political discussion at all. My sister, who also switched to MacPalin, feels the same.

I would dearly appreciate it if some of you would help open the eyes of the Obot masses, so I can once again hold intelligent conversations with my friends. But I am not holding my breath waiting. Really I’m not. From now on my vote is “private." Unless they apologize profusely I will never tell my Leftie friends and family who I vote for again.

Now, I'd like to take a few moments in my own blog to expound on that sentiment. This is just me. But ... I suspect there are others like me.

*First of all... I can sincerely state that... no matter what happens in the future... at this point I am simply not ready to re-engage "the Left." See, I've learned quite a bit about their "dirty little elitist secrets" of coercion and shunning. What I learned was ugly. It bordered on facism. Honestly, I don't ever want anyone to think I am one of them again.

*A Second point I would like to make is that the GOP is the party of my grandpa. I am not uncomfortable with the GOP of his era. The one that protected the interests of small business and believed in small government. I am all for fiscal conservatism and a strong work ethic. Those are the things that made the USA what it is. They are the cornerstones of my upbringing. (And I hope, my children's.)

*Thirdly, I'll proudly state that I am pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and pro-women's equality. I want the government to stay out of my bedroom and out of my church-life. These are issues on which I have broken with the GOP in the recent past (since I was old enough to vote, in fact. Which seems like a lifetime to me... but is not all that long, historically speaking.)

BUT... I am not fool enough to believe that wedge issues will continue to be the GOP's focus. I expect change, in the not too distant future. You may be aware that there is a Civil War being waged within the Republican Party right now. If brave young women like Meghan McCain are willing to mount up and ride into battle on behalf of gay marriage ... I want to get behind them. For that reason, I am considering changing my party affiliation completely. I want to vote in their primaries! (Here in Ohio, primaries are closed.)

*The fourth point I'd like to make is... It is customary, in the U.S.A., for various constituencies to "switch parties" on about a forty year cycle. Never forget that Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King were Republicans. Most PUMAs are too young to remember this.... but if you study your history you know there was a reason for it. The GOP was once the "progressive" party. It can be again. And I hope it will!

*Final point: For my money, PUMAs have every bit as much of a chance to make earth shattering changes within the GOP as they do in the Democratic party. Probably more. Because the Republican party is currently in need of members and is reaching out to PUMAs.

I am not interested in looking back. The Obama coup is water over the damn as far as I am concerned. I am looking at the future.... and from where I sit, the party of my grandpa now holds the most promise. The party of my daddy has turned on him, and millions of other hard working people. The elitist few will never represent "we the people." They can't. They disdain us, as was evidenced by the name calling that went on during the 2008 primaries.

If the likes of Meghan McCain, Michael Steele, Steve Schmidt, Sarah Palin, and the Log Cabin Republicans fail to return the Republican party to it's former Lincolnian/ Kingian glory, PUMAs will be as much to blame as they are.

12 comments:

I don't think the point of that post was "reaching out"it was more "if someone who voted for Obama comes to you and says 'you were right" will you spit at them or smile?" I find myself smiling often these days.Without going out of my way at all.

I live in an Obat town and so far they are all still obats. They have not changed their minds at all. Sadly, I have stopped attending all spiritual events because the spiritual community is completely gaga over Obama. I tried recently to re-engage and it didn't work as I was asked to chant for Obama and applaud him. I am with you Stray; the real energy is on the GOP side. The Dem party has been taken over and it will be a very long time before anything new can happen there. I was raised Dem but the Dem Party of my youth bears no resemblance to the Dem party today. I am going to stay Independent, but if Sarah Palin decides to run from POTUS, I am working for her.

I don't think the fanatics will change. But some of the not-quite brown shirts will come around.I don't plan to open half way homes for them to help them acclimate to the real world.But if I find myself at some legit protest next to some of them, I won't call them "Johnny come lately" or ask for purity certificates.

Hey Puma4Life. So sorry to hear about your spiritual community (chant for obama). good goddess, what has this world come to.

most of my friends who went for obama are still swooning. I avoid them. That is the difficult part for me cause it seems no matter what we did together, the conversation would melt into what is the rockstar doing.

anyway, i switched to Independent last summer. Reaching out?--well-the conversation has to change first. The true obots are gone in my book.morninmist

Some Obamatards have been coming round. Rick Warren was a wake-up call for many. Over time, more will do so.

As for the Republicans, I hope they'll come back from outer space at some point, because the country needs a viable opposition party, but I'm not convinced it's starting to happen yet. The Christian Right still seems to be pretty much in the driver's seat. They'd love to co-opt PUMA-dom, but conservative and liberal aren't just labels -- they represent real differences.

I did not see where Taggles said to reach out to former obots. She clearly explained that not all Democratic voters, who voted for Obama, are are obots. That was even the title of her post. I personally won't try to recruit anyone but neither can I hold onto all that hate. I will reserve my anger for the real obots. I can understand your position tho. That whole episode was very painful and killed our chance to have Hillary.

"Wait and see" what makes it into law via the budget, and what he does re the Bush crimes, is the only path at this point.

The Democratic Party stopped asking for my vote after they screwed Hillary - Hillary played on and worked hard for her team but they were no longer my team for the 08 election cycle.

If they ever plan to ask for it again, I need some answers to a few questions, and a few promises that will be kept, before they get that vote. They can forget about money and time investing in the Party - that door is closed. But the vote is waiting for developments.

I was appalled by the behavior of people close to me whom I thought would never fall under the spell of fanaticism over a fool and fraud. It became apparant to me how deeply rooted the seeds sown by the far left for the last 30 yrs have become. Unfortunately, the outcome of electing this fool will be major political upheaval once the majority of the people figure out what's happening. We will get reform, but it will be painful. I know one thing; I'll never give blanket allegiance to a party again and will stay forever engaged.

I think the tea party movement has a chance to become a real movement if people refrain from being coopted by a political party and don't let themselves be typecast as conservatives or right wing. The tea parties were attended by all types of people. I feel that people such as myself and other PUMAs and independents have a role to play in the tea party movement and that role is to keep hammering home that the teaparties are non partisan; that we may not agree on all issues, but we do agree that the people need to regain control of their country. Power to the People.

Amblings of a Stray

Where In The World Is ....

In "real life" Dawg is a mom, a nurse, a pet rescuer and a tireless advocate for animal rights.
Dawg is happily married for thirty years and has raised three awesome children. She holds an advanced degree in Family Science, wherein her research was focused on women's support circles during parturition. Her dedication to Women's Rights is directly affected by her belief that motherhood should not be a sentence to isolation and disenfranchisement.
Dawg is on hiatus from political bloggery d/t the intense demands of her engagement in the No Kill movement at this time. However, she remains influenced by PUMA politics and reads the blogs of her fellow PUMAs (at right) regularly.

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"Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave.